Not a typical Sunday

A bunch of us from The Springs went down to Galveston this morning to help the aunt and uncle of Chris Garcia. They live in a one story house in a typical neighborhood you would see in any town- in other words, they don't have a wash-out level and they aren't on stilts like so many of the houses you've seen on the news since Hurricane Ike hit 3 weeks ago. The ocean tidal surge went through their house and filled it 3 feet deep. The city of Galveston just let residents come back to their homes this past Wednesday, so the carpets and drywall have not been touched in 2.5 weeks. While I knew all this before we got there, I still wasn't prepared for what we saw.



The area we live in, League City, has piles of foliage, such as tree limbs, on the curb of every house you pass. It's depressing because this normally green, lush area is brown and cluttered. There is a smattering of blue tarps on roofs to cover missing shingles, and there are a few other evidences of wind damage. Galveston is different.

The first thing I noticed was the boats, on the road. Literally. On the road. The water had risen up over the highway and pushed boats every which way. When the water receded, some of the boats stayed there, on the road. I didn't try to count, but I know there were at least 30 randomly deposited boats along the roadway.

The next thing I noticed was the lack of blue roof tarps. Granted- this was overshadowed by the fact that many roofs were flat on the ground, and no longer needed tarps. But there was no large display of roof damage that could be covered up with simple tarps. I also noticed that all of the shrubbery was standing, but brown. And most trees (other than palm trees) are also standing, and brown. Seems this is what happens when salt water gets in to the soil to such a degree that the fresh water is outnumbered. Salt water kills most plants.

Finally, the massive destruction of Ike is apparent in the things in the piles of debris sitting on the Galveston sidewalks. No tree limbs, but lots of refrigerators. And other major appliances. And carpet, drywall, armoires, side tables, kitchen tables, couches, chairs, paintings, books (so many books), mattresses. Simply everything that had once been INSIDE the houses was now OUTside the houses, waiting to be hauled away.

I could write about the specifics for pages and pages, but I want to mention three things that stood out to me. 1- it's all just stuff. When it is waterlogged and mildewed and rotten, that stuff that once seemed vital and important is just stuff to be placed on the curb and hauled away. 2- some of that stuff survived, and I watched one of the home owners we helped carefully wrap a ceramic hamburger in paper and place it in a box, to be placed in storage to some day be unwrapped and displayed again. A ceramic hamburger. Despite the devastation around her and the massive amounts of stuff she was tossing to the curb, she is still human and found importance in that hamburger. I almost asked her the significance of the ceramic piece, but left her to her own thoughts as she gently handled the trinket. I wondered what I would do with my trinkets. On this side of it, I think I would just toss it all. But that's easy for me to say as I sit here surrounded by all my stuff in perfect condition.

And 3- as we were leaving, I saw a tiny blond little girl walking through some of the debris holding her mother's hand. Stab to the heart. I cried for the first time that day when I thought about my kids, and what it would be like if I had to live with the destruction that they were living with. It's hard enough to walk down the street with my kids and keep them from picking up pretty rocks they find on the way. How much harder then to say "don't touch that" to EVERYTHING on the road? No electricity, probably no carpet, exposed beams in the house, very little furniture, if any.

I wish we could have stayed until it was finished, but that may be months from now. Please, if you can take time and go down to help someone, do it. If you can't, give to an organization set up to help those people. If you can't do that, pray for them. And take this opportunity to realize that the stuff in our lives is just stuff, that the only thing we can hold on to for sure through any storm is Jesus.